


Mirror Mirror

by vorpalsword



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Banter, F/F, Humor, Missy Being Missy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 05:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20371309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vorpalsword/pseuds/vorpalsword
Summary: Clara goes to the Mondasian colony ship to save the Doctor and ends up saving Missy instead. When Missy’s around there’s bound to be trouble. Oh, and there’s a bit of a twist...





	1. Damsel in Distress

**Author's Note:**

> Set post Hell Bent for Clara and post The Doctor Falls for Missy.

Clara had been traveling in her own TARDIS for quite some time before the whispers about the Doctor and the colony ship found their way to her.

At first she didn’t think much of it - the Doctor was always getting trapped some place or another, after all. But when Clara heard about the  _ Cybermen _ ...well, she would just have to pop by this colony ship to make sure everything was alright. The Doctor wouldn’t know her, but he didn't need to know her for her to save him. She was the Impossible Girl, after all.

After running some test scans, Clara’s TARDIS materialized safely inside the Mondasian colony ship. Clara checked the monitor - a lot of smoke and fire, yes, but no Cybermen that she could see.

“Scan for life signs,” Clara instructed her ship.

The TARDIS gave a hum and hundreds of tiny dots appeared on a map image of the ship. 

“...with two hearts,” she clarified.

The tiny dots blinked out until only one remained.

“Gotcha.”

Clara exited her TARDIS, following the Doctor’s blinking life sign on the map of her handheld. It directed her to a nearby forest. Clara made her way among the trees. The scanner beeped, indicating she was getting close to her target. Clara frowned down at it.

“Doctor?”

Clara squinted out into the trees, but she didn’t see anyone. The scanner beeped more insistently. Clara took another step forward. 

“Doc -”

Clara came around a tree and stopped dead. There, lying in a small clearing in the woods, was the Time Lord indicated by her beeping scanner. 

It just wasn’t the Time Lord she was looking for.

_ Time Lady, thank you. Some of us can afford the upgrade.  _ Missy’s voice echoed through Clara’s mind as she inched closer to the body.

The Time Lady in question was lying twisted on the ground, scorch marks maring the back of her purple jacket. Clara looked around nervously, but it seemed no one else was around.

“Missy?” she said cautiously.

The other woman did not stir.  _ This has got to be a trap _ , Clara thought.

Clara’s heart beat faster. She had never seen Missy be still for this long. The woman was normally all manic energy, tapping toes and grandiose gesticulations and bursting out into song.

Clara approached Missy and nudged her cautiously with her foot, but the body in front of her remained motionless - lifeless? Clara felt an inexplicable panic rise up inside her, and she dropped to her knees next to Missy, turning her over to lie on her back.

But of course she was alive. Clara’s beeping scanner had told her as much. Though Missy appeared unconscious, Clara could see the slightest rise and fall of her chest to indicate she was still breathing. 

_ Death is for other people, dear _ Missy’s voice teased in Clara’s head. Still, the Time Lady appeared to be in rough shape…

Clara sighed loudly.

“Fine,” she muttered to herself, knowing what she had to do next.

xxxxx

With the help of her TARDIS, Clara had managed to rig a sort of short-distance teleport to get Missy on board the ship and into the medbay, where the TARDIS had done its best to stabilize her. Her breathing remained shallow, but the double heart rate displayed on the nearby monitor seemed regular enough. Clara wasn’t really sure what to look for beyond that. She would just have to trust the TARDIS to take care of the other woman and wait for something to change.

Clara had always hated waiting. That was part of why she loved traveling with the Doctor - they spent so much time literally running from trouble that she rarely had time to get caught up in her own head.

With nothing else to distract her, Clara sat next to Missy’s bed, trying to figure out her next move. The understated alarm she had felt first seeing Missy was nothing compared to the panic now rising inside her. What had she been thinking, saving the Queen of Evil and bringing her on board her TARDIS?  _ That I couldn’t just leave her to die _ , Clara answered her own question. But that didn’t help answer her next question: What the hell was she going to do when Missy woke up?

Clara sighed deeply and dropped her head into her hands, but before she could work herself up into a real frenzy, the TARDIS gave a soft beep. The sound of movement next to her made Clara’s head snap back up so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash. Unconsciously Clara inched to the edge of her seat, closer to Missy as she started to wake.

After a moment, piercing blue eyes snapped open. Missy sat up slowly, then gave a languid, cat-like stretch, as if waking from a relaxing nap and not from a laserfire-induced temporary coma. (Perhaps to the Mistress these things were basically one and the same.) 

Missy turned towards Clara and gave an affected jump, as if just now noticing her presence.

“Ooh, hello poppet! What are you doing here?”

“This is my TARDIS,” Clara answered cautiously.

“Is it now?” Missy glanced around the room thoughtfully before her eyes landed back on Clara.

“Interesting...I have to say, I didn’t expect to see you again. Rumor has it you kicked the bucket, or at least that’s what the Doctor led me to believe. Of course, he can’t  _ really _ remember what happened.” Missy smirked. “Did you fake your own death to ditch the old fuddy-duddy? Can’t say I blame you. Been there, done that!”

“I didn’t  _ fake my own death _ to get away from the Doctor. That’s something a crazy person would do.”

“As I said dear - been there, done that.”

“Right,” Clara muttered, absently wondering how a conversation she didn’t have a plan for could feel like it had gone so off course.

Missy suddenly lurched forward, grabbing Clara by the wrist. Clara flinched instinctively, expecting...well, she didn’t know what. You never did know with Missy. But a moment passed and Missy was just...holding her hand?

“Well, well, well…” 

Missy’s piercing eyes met Clara’s, and there was no disguising the surprise in them. Her fingers tapped the pulse point on Clara’s wrist. Or rather, where a pulse should have been.

“Not dead, but not quite alive either. That  _ is _ impressive, puppy. And you’ve managed to snag yourself a TARDIS too. It seems you’ve got quite the story to tell.”

Missy released Clara’s wrist and sat back on the bed. “But it will have to wait.”

“Oh sorry, are you busy now?” Clara rolled her eyes.

“Well, in my experience, I’ve found it can be rather difficult to focus on humans blithering on when one is dying,” Missy said matter-of-factly. “It’s less about the ability to  _ understand _ what’s being said - because surely even my half-dead brain could comprehend a human story - and more about the  _ mental fortitude _ it requires to sit through the drivel. You understand, don’t you, Clara?”

“When one is - hang on. You’re not dying,” Clara said.

“I think I would know dear, I’ve done it enough times.”

“But - ”

And then a golden sort of glowing started to surround Missy.

“You may want to take a few steps back now. Things are about to get a teensy-bit... _ explosive.” _

Clara stumbled backwards to the opposite side of the medbay.  _ How could this be happening?  _ The TARDIS said she was stabilizing! But still Missy disappeared in an explosion of golden light so bright Clara had to cover her eyes.

When the pulsing glow faded away, Clara lowered her hands and turned to face the latest incarnation of the Mistress.

She was not prepared to see her own wide eyes staring back at her.


	2. The Time Lady, the Puppy, and the Wardrobe

“I - you - what -” Clara spluttered, pointing at Missy. At...herself? No, at the Mistress of Evil whose new body looked exactly like one Clara Oswald. Clara felt the world’s biggest migraine coming on as she continued to point and gape at Missy, unable to form words.

“Left you speechless, have I? I’ll assume that means I’m just as devastatingly attractive as I was before.”

Missy took a few steps in Clara’s direction, while looking down at her new body.

“Hmm, still a woman. That’s nice.”

She looked up at Clara.

“Well don’t just stand there. Give us a mirror, a girl needs to know her own face after all.”

Clara didn’t move. She was frozen in place, her mind racing. Missy finally seemed to realize that the panic across Clara’s face wasn’t the fun kind caused by encountering someone devastatingly attractive. Now  _ she _ was feeling panicky. She started rummaging through her coat pockets.

“Clara. Am I...UGLY? You’d tell me if I were ugly, wouldn’t you?” 

Missy was patting down her pockets with increasing desperation. Finally, she retrieved a compact mirror from the inner depths of her coat and flipped it open, staring intently at her new face.

For a long moment, neither woman moved. Clara stared at Missy, and Missy stared at her reflection.

Then Missy’s eyes tore themselves away from the mirror and locked on to Clara’s identical eyes. 

And then all of a sudden, Missy was roaring with laughter.

She dropped to the floor with the force of her hysterics. For a moment she sputtered like Clara had, unable to speak, just pointing at Clara and then at herself over and over and positively wheezing with laughter. Clara, now getting over her initial shock, was unamused.

When Missy finally pulled herself together, Clara was standing over her with her hands on her hips.

“Oh yeah, of course you think this is really funny. Ha ha.”

“Come on Clara. It is a bit funny,” Missy teased. 

Clara could feel herself getting riled up, which was no doubt Missy’s intention, but she couldn’t stop herself from carrying on in a raised voice.

“It is NOT funny, Missy! What were you thinking? You can’t - you can’t just go traipsing around the universe in my body!”

“I think you’ll find that if I wanted your body, Clara Oswald, I could have it at any time,” Missy said. A strange edge to her voice left Clara wondering if the statement was meant as a come-on or a threat. 

Half her brain hung up on trying to figure this out, Clara stammered out a response.

“I - fine, I mean - you just - you can’t go about in a body that looks exactly the same as my body, it’s just not -“

The sentence died in Clara’s throat as Missy stood up quickly. Clara hadn’t realized how close she had gotten to the other woman in her anger, and Missy’s quick movement left them standing almost chest to chest. Missy dragged her eyes slowly up and down Clara’s body. Clara felt herself fighting against a blush under the Time Lady’s gaze. 

Missy leaned in closer, as if studying Clara’s face, and then said in a too-casual tone of voice, “How do you know our bodies are the same?”

Clara’s brow furrowed, confused - 

“...You’ve only seen my face,” Missy finished with an exaggerated wink.

The over-dramatic expression was better suited to her last face and looked a bit odd when attempted with Clara’s features, but Clara felt herself blush for real under Missy’s attention just the same. Before Clara could pull herself together to respond, the other woman was dancing away and headed out the door.

Clara stood shell-shocked for a moment before she realized she had just let Missy wander off into her TARDIS completely unsupervised.

“Shit.”

xxxxx

Clara darted into the control room and was surprised to find it empty. She had assumed Missy would have come straight here to pilot herself to wherever it was the Time Lady wanted to go. Sending a silent thank you up to whatever force had granted her this one reprieve on a day threatening to make her completely lose it, Clara quickly locked the TARDIS controls to only respond to her. Of course, Missy was an actual evil genius and had much more experience piloting a TARDIS, so she could probably get around this if she really wanted. Clara just hoped it would be enough to slow her down long enough for Clara to...to do what, exactly?

Clara huffed out an annoyed breath, wondering again what she had been thinking bringing Missy on board her ship. If Missy decided to take over her TARDIS and wreak havoc across all of time and space, what exactly was Clara going to be able to do to stop her?

Well. One problem at a time. Missy wasn’t in the control room, which meant Clara still had a Time Lady to find. She set off into the TARDIS, trying to think what the other woman’s first destination might be.

xxxxx

After a couple more false starts, Clara finally found Missy digging through her wardrobe. It looked like half the clothes Clara owned were now scattered around the room. Missy held up yellow-patterned blouse in one hand and a green dress in the other, frowning and muttering to herself.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” Clara asked, arms crossed.

“Oh, Clara! Good, you’re here. You can help!”

“Help with what?”

“Help me figure out what to wear! I wouldn’t ask normally - it’s safe to assume my taste is better than most people’s, after all, I am a perfect genius - but seeing as you have some years’ experience dressing this exact body -”

Missy continued to talk about the struggles of regeneration and probably threw in a few insults about Clara’s clothes, but Clara had stopped listening. Now that Missy had brought it to her attention, she realized how ridiculous the Time Lady looked still in her old clothes. Missy’s Edwardian garb, when draped over the sharp lines of her previous body, had added to her overall aura of intimidation. The vibe was psycho Mary Poppins, the strictest governess you’d ever had, powerful but a touch unstable: the Mistress personified.

Clara’s body in Missy’s now ill-fitting clothes just looked...weirdly matronly and out of place. It somehow aged her but also made her look like a child playing dress-up - basically, the exact opposite of intimidating. It was no wonder Missy wanted to change.

The Time Lady was still talking and shuffling clothes about, not noticing Clara’s lack of response. Clara took the opportunity to study the new Missy carefully. She did look like Clara - exactly like Clara - but she was also...different. She smiled with more teeth. She moved with Missy’s restless energy, gesticulating while talking in a showy way Clara herself never would.

_ Clara. _

_ But the eyes, _ Clara thought,  _ that’s where you can really see it. _ Missy’s new eyes were big and brown like Clara’s, but it was like the age of the Time Lady shone through them - 

_ Clara. _

\- and there was something else, a hard edge to them, an edge Clara’s eyes didn’t have. Clara recognized that look, a look from eyes that pierced into yours, like they could see right into you, right through you, but it wasn’t quite right, not on her face, not with her eyes. Eyes like that, Missy’s eyes - Missy’s old eyes - were deep and blue and sharp and unsettling and beautiful all at once.

Clara missed those eyes.

“CLARA!”

Missy’s voice coming from very close to her startled Clara from her thoughts, and she jumped backward a bit.   
  
“What?”

“You weren’t even listening to me, were you?” Missy answered with an exaggerated pout. “I was just asking - “

But Clara was already not listening again, because now that she had stopped thinking about Missy and gone back to actually looking at her - 

“MISSY!”

“Yes, poppet?”

“WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!”

Clara tilted her head up, directing her gaze at the ceiling to avoid looking at the other woman.

“Well I’m trying to change my clothes, and I’m not sure how else to do it.”

Clara sighed deeply, resisting the urge to throttle the Time Lady right into her next body just to avoid dealing with all this.

“I meant...why are you naked...while I’m here?”

“You came to me, Clara. So really the question is, why are you here while I’m naked?” Missy countered with a smirk.

“I - I’m - you know what, fine, I’ll just -” Clara stumbled backward, away from Missy, eyes still on the ceiling.

“What’s the matter, dear? I thought you wanted to find out if our bodies are the same. Of course, it would be most helpful if you also took your clothes off, for comparison’s sake -”

Mercifully, at this point Clara had backtracked enough to reach the far wall. Spinning around quickly, she practically sprinted toward the open door, calling back over her shoulder, “Just - just put some clothes on. You can come find me when you’re decent.”

Clara cringed at her own words, already anticipating Missy’s response - 

“I’m never dec-”

“When you’re DRESSED. Okay?”

“Okay,” Missy agreed, and Clara could hear the amusement in her voice. “Ooh, Clara! One more question,” Missy called after her.

Clara paused in the hall, just outside the door.

“Yeah?” she called back cautiously.

“Where do you keep your underwear?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this mostly written, but if there's something you want to see Missy do while she looks like Clara, add it in the comments and I'll see what I can do ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Dun dun dun! Were you surprised?
> 
> Ch. 2 will be posted tomorrow :)


End file.
